Elevator 3

Self-described as "digitalanalog mood music," Curd Duca's Elevator 3 album jams together 48 short pieces of sound montage, using digital processing to splice together and manipulate warm acoustic sounds. Five of the songs employ the soothing vocals of Carin Feldschmid, bringing these otherwise entirely abstract pieces closer to our schema of a traditional song; the humanity of her voice elevates these songs to the status of being the most memorable moments on the album. Yet even these few songs with vocals tend to pass by unconsciously as Duca quickly transitions from one song to the next so smoothly that only the most attentive listeners will notice. And keep in mind that Duca doesn't expect the listener to be attentive; he doesn't call it mood music for nothing. The music tends to flow in a stream of consciousness-like manner, from one brief moment of acoustic sound to the next. There are few salient moments and virtually no dominant rhythms, only subtly pulsing beats, fading samples, and breaths of quiet noise. This lack of salient attributes combines with the short track length and seamless transitioning to create the essence of poetic mood music that never gets tedious or monotonous; it isn't funky, melodic, or very beautiful, but it is rather calming. ~ Jason Birchmeier